28 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
of room, and, besides what could be stowed down 
below, had generally to be piled to an inconvenient 
height on deck. We used to embark as much as 
would last us from thirty to thirty-six hours, and we 
consumed on an average seventy sticks an hour, the 
sticks being a Portuguese vara (five spans) long and 
three or four inches thick. Piles of firewood are 
established at convenient distances all along the 
banks. The wood which is most largely consumed 
is that of the Mulatto tree, so called from its shining 
bark, which is sometimes of a leaden-coloured hue, 
at others verging on red. It is one of the most 
abundant and at the same time handsomest trees all 
along the Amazon, growing often to lOO feet high, 
and in the spring-time bearing a profusion of white 
flowers which may be compared to those of the 
hawthorn for size and odour. The tree, however, 
belongs to a very different tribe, and is closely allied 
to the Cascarilla or Peruvian Bark tree. It was un- 
known to botanists until I sent specimens from 
Santarem, and Mr. Bentham has called it Enkylista 
Sprucemta. The wood causes a good deal of flame, 
and burns nearly as well when green as dry. . . . 
Imagine the cabin passengers of the Monarca 
stretched in their hammocks under an awning in 
the poop eagerly listening to one of their number 
reading from an old black-letter copy of the fabulous 
history of Carlos Magno," and amongst those 
listeners were a Juiz de Direito, a Procurador 
Publico, two military Commandants going to take 
charge of garrisons at Ega and at the mouth of the 
river Ica, and an English botanist whom, at least, 
one would have supposed far in advance of such 
old-world fooleries. When I reached San Carlos in 
